MIAMI — A man from the Fort Myers area is in custody in South Florida in connection with an armed robbery at a Miami apartment building in mid-August in which police said he fled in a Chevrolet Corvette.
Miami police said the robbery happened on the morning of Aug. 14. Lee County deputies arrested Xavier Vance Thompson, 19, of Lehigh Acres, later that morning as he drove the Corvette in Fort Myers, according to an arrest warrant. Thompson would be taken back to Miami-Dade County to be booked on Friday.
Authorities said four other suspects were involved, one of whom was identified as 22-year-old Giovanni Lee Veilleux, who records show also lives in Lehigh Acres. He was not in custody in either Miami-Dade or Lee counties as of Monday morning.
The arrest warrant states that the victim had been invited over the apartment, the location of which wasn’t specified, to “hang out” to socialize with Thompson, Veilleux and another man, along with two women, on Aug. 12.
When he was invited back on Aug. 14, police said the victim was “smoking and socializing” with Thompson, Veilleux and three other men when he looked up to see the group armed with pistols and AR-15s, pointing the guns at him.
“You lacking, we got you,” police said Veilleux told the victim. “Give it up.”
One of the men hit the victim in the head with the AR-15 “several times” while he was restrained and placed in a chokehold, according to the warrant.
According to the warrant, the victim told investigators that “his face was pushed into the couch while the offenders searched his pockets and removed his Rose Gold 22 inch Cuban link with baguette diamonds necklace, Chrome Hearts designer reading glasses, red Nike shoes, identification card, bank card, cash and prescription pills inside their prescription bottle with (his) name,” along with his cellphone.
Authorities said he pleaded with the group to return his belongings to no avail; they instead “mocked him.”
They said two of the men “escorted him to the elevator and threatened him while forcing him inside.”
“The victim entered the elevator, and the doors closed,” the warrant states. “However, the elevator did not move because a key fob was required for operation. When the elevator doors reopened, the victim exited and heard the stairwell door closing. The victim then ran down the stairwell to check whether his vehicle had been taken.”
Police said his car was still there but he saw the group fleeing in the aforementioned Corvette, as well as a Dodge Durango. According to the warrant, he ran out of the parking garage and spotted a Miami police sergeant and reported what happened.
Authorities said downtown license plate readers captured both vehicles fleeing toward Interstate 95.
Just after 11:45 a.m., a detective with the Lee County Sheriff’s Office spotted the Corvette in Fort Myers and took Thompson into custody after conducting a felony traffic stop, according to police.
Authorities said while the LCSO detective searched Thompson, “a foreign cylindrical object was observed protruding from (his) rear area.”
That object, according to an LCSO report, was under the victim’s pants and boxers, stuffed “in between his buttocks” and turned out to be the victim’s pill bottle with his name on it.
Deputies said Thompson told them “something to the effect of knowing he wasn’t supposed to have the pills and stuffing them down his pants when he got pulled over.”
Detectives were able to identify two full pills inside as being Adderall and the opioid buprenorphine. They arrested Thompson on drug possession charges.
Now facing an armed robbery charge in Miami-Dade, Thompson was being held without bond in the Metrowest Detention Center as of Monday morning.
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